Michael Calabrese

The second game in the Jimmy V doubleheader should be a great one. Both of these teams are so well coached on the defensive end and have the personnel to give opponents fits. Florida’s bigs give new meaning to “big”. The Gators rotate three centers between 6’10” and 7’1” and if they need to go taller, they can bring in the tallest player in the history of the sport, 7’9” Olivier Rioux. UConn is getting healthier, which is a great sign for the Huskies and a bad sign for their opponents. Braylon Mullin, a five-star wing, has recovered from a preseason ankle injury and is providing Hurley with the kind of perimeter shotmaking that his vintage championship teams had in spades. Against Kansas last week, he knocked down three triples and scored 17 points in just 23 minutes of action. The question looming ahead of this one is the availability of Tarris Reed. The senior center was playing the best basketball of his career before he rolled his ankle. In his first three games, he was shooting 74% from the floor while averaging 20 points, nine boards, and 2.5 blocks per game. He will be a game-time decision on Tuesday, but there have been promising practice reports, and we haven’t seen him in a walking boot since the injury. If he’s a go, I’m pulling the trigger on the Huskies because they own Madison Square Garden and seemingly always get up for games on neutral floors. Since the spring of 2021, UConn is 14-5 straight up at Madison Square Garden. And in the past five years, Dan Hurley’s team is 30-11 against the spread on neutral floors (73.2%), which is far and away the best percentage at the window for any team with more than 20 such games on its résumé.